Seoul plays Moscow card with North
Korea By Seo Hyun-jin
MOSCOW - Though North
Korean leader Kim-Jong-il didn't show up, as some had
speculated, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun's
Russian meetings enhanced political and economic
cooperation between Seoul and Moscow. Significantly, it
broadened South Korea's diplomatic front at a time when
some Koreans are urging the government to overcome its
dependence on the United States.
South Korean
analysts said Seoul would have to pursue improving ties
with Moscow as a way to diversify its diplomatic
engagement, which has so far mostly focused on
Washington. Seoul's ties with Washington have been
strained over Roh's efforts to chart a more independent
foreign policy, resentment toward US troop presence and
the planned deployment of South Korean troops to Iraq.
The summit and other agreements signed this week
upgraded Seoul-Moscow ties for comprehensive cooperation
in political areas, economics, aerospace technology,
information technology, maritime science, transportation
- and especially energy. And South Korean companies
signed agreements with their Russian counterparts worth
US$4 billion. Earlier, Roh had visited Kazakhstan and
concluded agreements on energy and other cooperation.
Government officials and experts said South
Korea will be able to enhance its energy independence
with the joint energy projects with Russia and
Kazakhstan. "The most important achievements from Roh's
summit diplomacy this week are the facts that South
Korea has acquired energy resources and got support for
the peaceful settlement of the North Korean nuclear
issue," Roh's foreign affairs adviser Chung Woo-seong
said.
Roh's talks with Russian President
Vladimir Putin on energy and transportation eventually
could help defuse tension on the Korean Peninsula. Some
of major projects under discussion - linking pipelines
to carry natural gas and oil from Russia's Far East and
Siberia to South Korea, and the connection of the
Trans-Korean Railway with the Trans-Siberian Railway -
could help North Korea engage with the international
community and benefit the isolationist and impoverished
country by passing through it.
South Korea's
strengthened ties with Moscow also could point to an
enhanced Russian role in settling issues concerning
North Korea, especially its nuclear weapons program,
because the North is believed to want to use its
long-standing relations with Russia to counter influence
from the United States.
Upgrading
Seoul-Moscow ties After their summit in the
Kremlin Palace, Roh and Putin adopted a Korea-Russia
Joint Declaration, redefining their relationship as a
"mutually trustful and comprehensive partnership" - a
decade after the two countries agreed on a constructive
and complementary partnership. The two nations
reinstated diplomatic ties in 1990 following the
collapse of the Soviet Union, thus renewing a
relationship that had been cut off during the Cold War.
"I and President Putin decided to develop
reciprocal relations between the two countries, as South
Korea's plan about a peaceful and prosperous Northeast
Asia and Russia's strategy to develop the Russian Far
East pursue something similar," Roh told a joint news
conference with Putin after their meeting.
Putin
said Russia, which maintains friendly ties with both
Koreas, is interested in energy and transportation
projects involving the three parties and he emphasized
the political and economic benefits of such projects to
all three parties.
The railway project will
enable South Korea to be directly linked to Europe if
the two Koreas complete the connection of inter-Korean
railways. Based on a South-North agreement reached
during their first-ever summit in 2000, the South has
finished building its side of the border-crossing
railway, but the North has yet to complete its work.
The proposed natural gas pipelines would provide
crucial energy resources to the South, and could also
benefit the impoverished North, its economy a shambles
and its people hungry, if all parties can agree on
passage through the isolationist communist state.
"The Korea-Russia agreement to upgrade the
bilateral relations will facilitate practical
cooperation between them, though [Korean-Russian]
bilateral cooperation hardly met people's expectations
in the past," professor Ko Jae-nam at the Seoul-based
Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security told
Asia Times Online.
Yeo In-kon, a researcher at
the Korea Institute of National Unification in Seoul,
said, "As you can understand from the phrase 'mutually
trustful', there has been lack of confidence and
cooperation between the two sides, but I think the
summit will improve mutual trust."
Yeo said
South Korea has been reluctant to invest money in Russia
because of its economic and other problems, such as a
poor legal mechanism to ensure investors' rights, and
thus had focused instead on China.
Trade volume
between South Korea and Russia stood at $4.18 billion
last year, a five-fold increase from a meager $890
million in 1990. South Korea's investment in Russia grew
three-fold to $360 million at the end of last year.
Reflecting their intention to make good on the
Roh-Putin declaration, the two countries agreed to
facilitate exchanges in space technology and to waive
visas for diplomats. South Korean companies also signed
contracts for business projects with their Russian
counterparts, which altogether amount to some $4
billion.
Cultural exchanges between South Korea
and Russia are also expected to be enhanced, especially
because this year marks the 120th anniversary of the
Friendship and Trade Agreement, which was the start of
official relations between Korea and Russia. The year
also marks the 140th anniversary of the beginning of
Koreans' voluntary migration to Russia.
Russia's role in resolving North Korean
issues South Korea's interest in Russia is not
confined to bilateral ties but extends to issues
pertaining to North Korea, since Russia keeps friendly
relationships with both nations. "Russia's amicable ties
with the North and the three-way relationship between
Seoul, Moscow and Pyongyang will create a synergy effect
for peace in the region," according to professor Ko at
the Seoul-based Institute of Foreign Affairs and
National Security.
International recognition of
Russia's role in regard to the Korean Peninsula was
manifested when foreign and local media speculated that
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il might make a surprise
visit to Russia for a three-way summit with Roh and
Putin in Vladivostok, on Russia's border with the North,
during Roh's stay in Russia from Monday to Thursday.
That possibility has now evaporated, but Russia
has expressed willingness to host such a meeting.
"Russia is ready for the role of a hospitable host if
the corresponding offers will be given by North and
South Korean sides," said Russia's ambassador to South
Korea, Teymuraz Ramishvili.
Russia's influence
on the Korean Peninsula was constrained throughout the
1990s because its relations with Pyongyang were in
limbo, as North Korea opposed Moscow's normalization of
diplomatic relations with Seoul. Moscow increased its
clout significantly, however, after it rejuvenated its
alliance with Pyongyang in February 2000 by replacing
their cooperation agreement with a friendlier one, a
"mutual cooperation treaty".
Thus, North Korean
issues were high on the agenda of Roh-Putin talks,
especially since international efforts to end North
Korea's nuclear weapons development have suffered
another setback. Roh and Putin agreed to enhance joint
efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear standoff,
which flared up in October 2002. And Putin promised to
play a constructive role in convening the fourth round
of six-party nuclear talks at the earliest possible
date, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said.
South Korea and Russia are part of the
multilateral talks, which also involve North Korea,
China, Japan and the US. Chances are slim that the
countries open their new round of talks before the end
of September as they had earlier promised. This is
because North Korea said it would not take part pending
a full and impartial investigation of South Korea's past
nuclear experiments.
Putin has expressed his
willingness to take initiatives to promote peace on the
Korean Peninsula. "Russia is interested in energy and
transportation projects involving Russia and the two
Koreas, and other trilateral economic programs. The
three-way cooperation is economically and politically
beneficial," Putin told the joint news conference with
Roh.
Former Korean national security adviser Ra
Jong-yil has suggested that Russian gas could be
provided to the North as part of the alternative energy
measures to resolve the North Korean nuclear problem.
Provision of energy has been one of North Korea's key
demands in scrapping its nuclear weapons development, as
well as security guarantees. During a dinner meeting
following the formal summit, Roh stressed that South
Korea has provided a specific and comprehensive package
to offer economic assistance to North Korea once the
nuclear tension has been defused. His comments are seen
as an effort to induce the North to the dialogue table.
"South Korea should closely cooperate with
Russia, which is closely connected with North Korea and
thus can contribute to bringing about peace on the
peninsula," Yeo said.
Roh's energy
diplomacy The major achievements of the visit
concerned the energy sector. South Korea and Russia
agreed to take specific steps to jointly develop oil
fields and natural gas in East Siberia and link
pipelines to transport energy resources. South Korea’s
Commerce, Industry and Energy Minister Lee Hee-beom and
Russian Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko
agreed that the two nations should launch a "strategic
energy dialogue" for comprehensive cooperation in
energy.
After the summit, the Korea National Oil
Corporation and Russia's state-run oil company Rosneft
signed a memorandum of understanding for joint oil
exploration in the region, from which the South is
expected to acquire 1.7 billion barrels of oil. Their
project will first be conducted in Kamchatka and
Veninsky on Sakhalin Island. The summit will also spur
discussions on South Korea's natural gas imports from
Russia as both governments promised to conclude an
agreement on the provision of gas in the near future.
"The summit is significant in that it
contributed to South Korea securing energy resources in
Russia," Roh's adviser for foreign affairs Chung
Woo-seong said. As South Korea is the world's
fourth-largest energy buyer, securing energy cooperation
was high on the agenda for Roh's talks with Putin as
well as Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev just
before Roh's visit to Russia.
South Korea agreed
with Kazakhstan on Monday to jointly develop petroleum
and uranium in the Central Asian country, acquiring the
first bridgehead to the Caspian Sea, which has emerged
as a new treasure trove of natural resources following
the Middle East. The Korea National Oil Corporation
signed a protocol with the state-run oil firm of
Kazakhstan, KazMunaiGas, to develop up to 650 million
barrels of oil in the Caspian Sea and a memorandum of
understanding for another 200 million barrels in the
Tenge region.
South Korea and Kazakhstan also
agreed to cooperate on the peaceful use of atomic
energy, South Korea providing nuclear-related technology
to Kazakhstan to help that country develop uranium as
nuclear energy in order to generate electricity, as well
as for medical purposes.
Seo Hyun-jin is a Seoul-based
journalist specializing in diplomatic relations and
North-South unification issues.
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